Author's Note:
What a delay this chapter went through. No, scratch that, not 'a' delay, a SERIES of delays. Frankly, I'm just glad to have it over and done with. I'd say more, but I'll leave it to you all to read through this first before I say anything. And boy, do I have a lot to say.
See you all at the end note!
For the best reading experience, please adjust your font size until the images below are clearly legible:
[🀫🀔🀚🀆🀄]
~ STAGE 12: With Calm, Like A Plucked Guqin ~
[START]
There was a certain sentiment Luka often heard from people watching movies or reading books. It usually took the form of a few different half-minded comments:
'This main character's so stupid.'
'They really need to stay calm, why are they freaking out?'
'It's so obvious what they need to do.'
Most sensible people understood it was never that easy in reality. When a life-or-death situation came barreling in, it was rare to have the luxury of cooly assessing the situation before acting. It was a guillotine held by a frayed, rapidly unraveling rope; certain death on a short timer. No normal human being could maintain their composure staring that down.
Luka understood that. She was self-aware enough of her own nerves to know she was the type who could easily crack under that pressure.
This was the part where Luka's nerves killed her. When she panicked so badly her heart stopped and her brain shut down. Sannyo wouldn't have needed to kill her, she'd just die on her own.
The cold chill of the dragon's breath would reach her heart, freezing it solid—
—And yet, it didn't.
It was difficult to explain what was going on in Luka's head. What should've been a cacophonous orchestra of internal ramblings and panicking instead settled in a pure silence; like still water in her mind. Then, a single thought in her own voice:
"(If you lose it now, you die. You've got two hands left. Come on.)"
She already knew that. But for some reason, it felt like something solidified. An objective.
She needed to play this out to the end.
Luka took her seat once again, an unnatural calmness settling over her. Her fears and anxieties weren't gone, but had instead become deafened noise in the back of her mind. "Sorry about that. Let's get back to it."
Sannyo raised an eyebrow curiously. She looked mildly impressed by the shift, if nothing else. "Yes, let's. I believe it is your turn to deal."
"Of course." Luka nodded, and got to it. She didn't know where this new, bizarre calmness had come from and she dared not ask. There were other more pressing matters to attend to. So, she'd instead take her chance to think as she dealt out the next hand.
Rankings (East 3, Round 3):
1st - [West] Sannyo: 43100 pts
2nd - [East] Luka: 30000 pts
3rd - [North] Tengu: 28500 pts
4th - [South] Kappa: 18400 pts
Sannyo's ability. That was the main problem she needed to overcome here. To begin with, if she could control people with smoke, did Luka need to worry about being affected? She remembered the earlier haze in her mind, but couldn't think of an explanation for how she snapped out of it. Did she have some sort of resistance, somehow?
No, this was a waste of time and brainpower. If she had the ability to self-awarely think about being mind-controlled, she was probably fine. She needed to focus on how to counter this sort of dreadful advantage before it was too late.
(If it's tobacco-based, maybe I could politely ask her to stop smoking while we're playing? …Yeah, that's not happening.)
It had to have some other weakness. She just needed to figure out what it was.
As she finished dealing, her time to think came to an end. "Right," Luka flipped over the dead wall.
[🀄🀫🀫🀫🀫]
[🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫]
With that, everyone viewed their hands. Luka followed, and made the first draw from the wall—
[[E][E][E][4][6][9]🀙🀚🀚🀚🀛🀒🀔]
(Hm.)
Before she made any kind of plan, Luka needed to figure out Sannyo's. She'd start by watching how she reacted to Luka's first discard:
[6]
The table eyed it—rather, 'Sannyo' eyed it. There was no call, and the kappa's turn came.
Luka watched her and Sannyo closely. Still in a tranquil daze, the kappa put on the impression of looking at her hand. Meanwhile, Sannyo peered at her hand thoughtfully, then a tile hit the table—
[🀐]
"Chi." Sannyo called.
[🀐🀑🀒 / 🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫]
Then, without pausing, her discard:
[N]
Just as she'd been doing, Sannyo controlled the flow of the game as easily as she breathed. It felt a bit unnerving, seeing the other players' motions change so suddenly. Were they aware that they were being controlled? Or was it like a distant dream, like seeing their body move as a distant observer, unable to do anything to stop it?
(Amidst the muted noise in the back of her mind, something stirred. Like an itch, licking at the back of her mind. It would be a long while before she could properly unpack the feeling.)
Either way, just watching their half-asleep movements wasn't giving enough info to determine what Sannyo was going for. She needed more.
The tengu's turn. Curiously, Sannyo seemed to hold back her smoke. The tengu drew and looked at her hand, but was clearly not deciding anything meaningful. After a brief pause:
[🀄]
No call. The game continued to Luka, who made her draw as she plotted.
(She didn't even use her ability there. Are the melds she's going for not ones she can call from the tengu?) Considering that, Luka eyed her hand. (Sannyo's earlier play had a terminal at the front. That cuts her All Simples plays out of the picture. Let's see…)
[9]
No response from Sannyo.
Kappa's turn. As Luka expected, another whiff of smoke came, and the kappa's focus seemed to shift. Her eyes scanned, then locked onto a specific tile:
[1]
"Chi."
Another call, another meld assembled.
[🀐🀑🀒 [1][2][3] / 🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫]
Two similar sequences across different suits. That couldn't be a coincidence with Sannyo's planning. If Luka considered the current discards…
(She's probably going for a Three-Colored Straight. In other words, she wants the same sequence in the last remaining suit.)
Knowing that gave her some power, but not much. It was easy enough to avoid discarding the tile on her own, and in a normal game everyone else would do the same. On top of that, Sannyo's odds of drawing the necessary tiles or having them discarded wouldn't normally be that high, either. The rules of probability were how mahjong balanced itself.
But by using her ability, Sannyo had effectively given herself three entire hands to view and pull tiles from. Sannyo had forcibly bent probability in her favor. And if she could control every other player on the table, nothing was really stopping her from making any sort of call in any direction, either. Nothing but the fact that she wanted to play with her food.
How could Luka beat an ability so blatantly unfair?
"You're a fun one." Sannyo interrupted her thoughts. "Were you just pretending to be so meek?"
For a moment, Luka thought she was toying with her again. Then she saw the side of Sannyo's smirking mouth twitch ever-so-slightly, and realized: she was annoyed. Why? She'd practically already won.
She didn't feel like saying that aloud, of course. Luka forced a sly smile of her own. "Isn't that just how things are done here? I wouldn't want to spoil your fun, after all."
"..." Sannyo's cool demeanor cracked just a little further. Then, muttering that Luka could just barely make out. "What are you plotting…?"
Why was acting like that? It was true that Luka had completely changed her outward behavior, but Sannyo's suspicion still baffled her. The only reason Sannyo would be worried would be if there was still some way for her to lose.
… Was there?
(Am I missing something?)
Luka replayed the last few turns in her mind. It didn't come to her immediately. As Sannyo discarded the next tile and the turn moved to the tengu, she was worried she wouldn't see it at all. Watching the tengu do as she'd been doing for the last few turns only seemed to cement that fear. The same play, again, just as before…
(... Wait.)
Watching the tengu, Luka realized it. She finally noticed her mistake.
The tengu made no meaningful discard. Luka hardly needed to look at it. She already knew what was coming. With some care, she drew and discarded, letting the turn shift to the kappa. She made sure to hold onto a specific group of tiles.
With those tiles, Luka watched the kappa. Like every other time, her gaze seemed to snap to a specific tile, as if she were a machine following a command. There was a slim chance of this not being what she wanted. And so waited, even prayed, for that miraculous intersection of a plan and a little bit of luck.
The tile came down, louder than a tiny square of bone and bamboo had any right to be. Clack.
[🀚]
"Kan."
The callout had cut Sannyo off right as she went to make her own. The voice wasn't Sannyo's, the kappa's, or the tengu's. It was Luka's.
[🀚🀚🀚🀚]
Two actions taken in a single strike. The first, a call similar to pon: kan. A four-of-a-kind call; a quartet alike to pon's triplet. The second, the enabler of the first. Inevitably, by the nature of the game, there would come times when calls would legally happen at the same time. To settle that matter, riichi mahjong had a priority system:
Ron Pon/Kan Chi
If Sannyo was going for a chi call, then it could be countered by Luka performing any other call. Judging by her angry silence, it looked like she'd guessed right.
And like she'd remembered earlier, there were only 4 of each tile in the set.
"..." For the first time since they started, Sannyo grimaced. Her eyes emoted silently, Luka reading an angry 'I see' in them.
Seeing her plan succeed, the weakness of Sannyo's strategy solidified in Luka's mind, as well as her mistake:
The entire game, she'd been playing under a false impression. Even after she unveiled Sannyo's ability, she carried the mindset that she was up against three opponents fighting as one individual: Sannyo, and her mind-controlled flunkies. She hesitated to make calls, unsure when to press the offense because she was viewing all her opponents as part of one mind.
That. That right there was her mistake. It was such a minor difference, like specific wording in a legal document. But by observing things more closely, the reality became clear.
Again and again. The tengu and kappa did this same pattern of drawing with little concern for their own hands, before discarding purely for Sannyo's benefit. On the outside, it looked like some sort of seamless teamwork, as if they could see each others' hands and knew what to toss one another.
But, that was the thing. They never made any calls. Only Sannyo. It served no tactical advantage for Sannyo to not use the other players if she could. Why not make calls to throw Luka off her game? It only made sense for her to not do so if she couldn't.
Luka was certain she'd figured it out: Sannyo's mind control wasn't some absolute mental infiltration. In likelihood, it was probably closer to loose commands—like punching in command lines into a computer.
It also made sense of the earlier haze. It wasn't some attempt to break into Luka's mind that had failed—it was an attempt to give her a command. That was why the order was so oddly specific.
(I'm not done yet.) Now was her chance. With the tiles she was going for gone, Sannyo would need to restructure her hand. And if Luka had been right about what she was going for…
With kan having been called, a new rule also played out. When someone performed a kan, instead of drawing from the normal wall, they would instead draw from the dead wall and, consequently, reveal a new dora tile:
[🀄🀠🀫🀫🀫]
[🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫]
Luka reviewed her new hand.
[🀚🀚🀚🀚 / [E][E][E]🀙🀛🀛[4][4][5]🀒🀔]
Nothing in her hand matched the dora tiles, but it didn't hurt to check. Planning ahead, Luka could visualize a hand: something consisting of all pons, her existing kan, and a pair.
If she remembered the scoring correctly, that would add up to somewhere around 12000 pts. Enough to nip at Sannyo's heels if she didn't win the hand off of her, but not quite enough to seize the lead. At the very least, it could give her a fighting chance.
Luka firmly set out her discard:
[🀒]
Nothing from Sannyo. Luka figured that was the case; Sannyo likely hadn't set up anything that could make a call on that tile, considering she'd already taken one for a sequence earlier.
The table rotated, past the kappa, then back to Sannyo. She seemed to be studying Luka's stony expression, as if searching for some sort of tell. Then…
[🀛]
Again, with all the enthusiasm of a young general pushing his first offensive charge, Luka called. Since she'd disrupted Sannyo's earlier hand, it made sense for her to discard any tiles that no longer served a purpose. Luka had managed to correctly call which one she was going for.
[🀚🀚🀚🀚 🀛🀛🀛 / [E][E][E][4][4]🀙🀝🀔]
Hidden behind her new stoicism, Luka felt just a little bit of catharsis. (Hah! How does it feel to be the one squirming for a change?)
"... Hm." But, Sannyo wasn't squirming. In fact, she didn't react very much at all. Luka could even swear she was smiling a little. "Interesting. You're still choosing to fight me using normal methods. Are you holding out on me?"
(Holding b—I'M FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE!) The mental Luka screamed while the physical Luka sneered, bluffing. "Maybe you haven't given me a reason to play seriously yet."
That seemed to rattle Sannyo, like she was grinding her teeth a little. It seemed that Luka's manic shift in behavior was starting to grate on her. "Very well."
Even if this backfired, at the very least, annoying her assailant felt a little good.
(Okay, now to discard. I'm not doing anything with this right now, so…)
[🀙]
"Pon."
Luka froze. That was Sannyo's call. She hadn't felt anything like the haze from before. No, this was just a bad play. Right. She still had to worry about those…!
"Now then…" Sannyo reorganized her hand.
[🀙🀙🀙 🀐🀑🀒 [1][2][3] / 🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫]
How had she recovered so fast?! It should've taken her another turn or so to replan her hand. Unless, she'd been planning for multiple hands at once…
(What's the pattern…?! C'mon, look, Luka!) Each one had a terminal in it. That ruled out a number of hands, leaving only…
(Oh, crap.)
Luka had to finish her hand. Soon.
Sannyo's turn. A draw, a discard:
[4]
(There—!)
"Pon." Luka called, then made her draw.
[🀚🀚🀚🀚 🀛🀛🀛 [4][4][4] / [E][E][E]🀝🀔🀘]
(Come on, I'm so close! I just need to make a pair!)
Discard—(not a terminal, too much risk!)—
[🀝]
Sannyo wordlessly studied the tile and let it pass. She looked at Luka, then smirked. Luka held her ground.
No call, kappa's turn.
Draw. Sannyo's eyes focused on Luka's last few calls and discards. "Fuuu…" Discard—
[🀒]
She was using her ability to avoid any discards Luka could benefit from. The fact still held up, even if Sannyo was her only real opponent: aggressive calls only made it easier for players to guess what others were going for.
Sannyo's turn. She drew from the wall and smiled. "Hm~." She slid it next to two others with intent. Had she drawn into yet another meld?
Her discard:
[S]
(Nothing yet…)
Luka silently prayed as she looked at the tengu. Probability, mathematics, all such laws dictated how games like this played out. Luck might have been a factor, but it could be skewed by external influences. Complex calculations could be boiled down immensely just by changing a few tiny details.
If the tengu drew, out of the remaining tiles, what Sannyo wanted, the game was over. It was as simple a numbers game as that.
The tengu looked over her tiles… and her eyes precisely aimed at one.
Click.
That sound assaulted Luka's senses with a feeling. The bitter, cold sensation filled her mouth, making her swallow it down. That crushing, overwhelming sense of despair.
[🀡]
"Ron." The chill in Sannyo's voice only matched the feeling, as she slowly choked Luka with it.
[🀆🀆 🀙🀙🀙 🀐🀑🀒 [1][2][3] 🀡🀡🀡]
She'd even taken advantage of the dora tile Luka had flipped over.
"Let's see…" Sannyo chuckled, something that should've sounded harmless but just felt deathly to Luka's ears. "I believe this hand is worth 12000 points. Is that sufficient enough to get you playing seriously?"
Sannyo had planned for multiple hands. She had almost full control of the table's discards. She could easily assemble whatever hand she wanted in a short amount of time.
Its limitations hardly mattered. Her ability gave her too much of an edge. If Luka tried to push forward with aggressive calls, Sannyo could read her hand and have the entire table not drop anything she could use. And if Luka waited, Sannyo could just rush out a simple hand without any issue. Even if Luka assembled a hand in these conditions, could it even hope to overcome the gap in their points?
It was unbelievable that she was still able to hide her emotions. To be frank, Luka almost felt like crying from how unfair this was.
Rankings (East 4, Round 4):
1st - [South] Sannyo: 55100 pts
2nd - [North] Luka: 30000 pts
3rd - [East] Kappa: 18400 pts
4th - [West] Tengu: 16500 pts
A distance that felt insurmountable. A power that looked unbeatable. Luka could only lock eyes with the smoke-breathing dragon, who stared down at her like an executioner…
What could she possibly do with one last hand?
(Still? Even still, she's maintaining that little facade?)
Those were Sannyo's thoughts as they prepared for the final round.
If she only considered tangible evidence, there was no reason to suspect Luka East had any hope left of winning their game. Given earlier attempts, Sannyo observed that Luka had seemingly figured out the mystery of her ability, something that could have given her a chance. But instead, the girl fumbled at the end goal, unable to prevent Sannyo from claiming the 3rd round. It was a proper demonstration of how doomed she was.
So why did Sannyo feel such unease, looking into her eyes?
When Luka first stepped into her establishment, Sannyo saw an easy mark. Her initial goal was to lightly nudge the innocent baby chick towards sitting down and playing 'a few games'. (She still has costs to recoup, after all.)
Then, with such a casual attitude that it shocked her, the girl swatted away her smoke and her ability with all the ease of a child shooing a gnat. That alone piqued Sannyo's interest, and it only grew as the girl shared her story.
It was a very exclusive club which could so thoroughly resist her ability. Many of whom were either exceedingly powerful humans or infamously fearsome youkai, neither of which Luka resembled. It only raised further questions on who or what this girl was, even as she enacted her new plan.
That feeling of uncertainty, that sense that she was missing something about her, only grew as Luka's attitude mysteriously kept changing mid-game.
First frightful and anxious, then full of panic and shock. Now she displayed such unrelenting calm it was hard to believe she was ever so nervous before. It was baffling, almost a parody. Was she putting on some sort of performance?
Either way, Sannyo recognized the look in her eyes now. She'd lived for some time. It was a decidedly human expression—unbreakable, unshaken determination, even when backed against a corner.
Was it mere boldness? Or, was she yet still hiding something?
"You've played around long enough, haven't you?" Sannyo smirked tauntingly. "If you don't take this game seriously, I really will take the win. And I'm sure you haven't forgotten our agreement."
As if to illustrate her point, Sannyo took another drag from her pipe. The smoke filled her, and with a sigh, a wispy cloud departed and drifted towards Luka. It surrounded her, dancing mockingly. 'Fight or die, fight or die!'
Luka closed her eyes, as if meditating. "Fuuu…"
(...? What is she—)
Without breaking her calm, she inhaled the smoke Sannyo had blown her way. Then, with some force, she puffed it back out, the smoke parting as it made contact with Sannyo's glare.
"I suppose you're right." Eyes snapping open, Luka's voice was cold and focused. "Let's stop wasting time, then."
[🀛🀫🀫🀫🀫]
[🀫🀫🀫🀫🀫]
East 4, Round 4. Kappa's deal.
Sannyo watched as the hand was slowly and carefully dealt out. It was a bit unfortunate that she'd had to involve two other customers in this little scuffle, but she'd been careful in her use of her ability. For the kappa and tengu, she'd been careful to command them not to think too hard about the details of this game. Like being in a half-dreaming state, they would only be vaguely aware of everything around them. Able to respond and act as normal to shuffle tiles and play the game, but ultimately subject to her commands when the need arose. The only thing they would remember when the dream awoke was playing a wonderfully fun game of mahjong.
With her tiles finally in her hand, Sannyo flipped them up to look at her opening hand:
[[2][2][2][9]🀔🀔🀙🀚🀚🀛🀛🀝🀞]
Ah, good. This was an ideal hand. She was already in the lead—she would go for tanyao: All-Simples, just as she had in the first round, and close the game out before Luka even got a chance to act.
It wouldn't take her long. Just a few turns…
The kappa looked at her tiles, mulling over her discard. Sannyo let out a wispy sigh, silent words carried on the cloud:
(For now… Would you kindly discard a [🀔] if you have one?)
After a pause, she looked at her hand… then discarded a tile:
[🀓]
(No luck, hm? She must have not drawn one yet.) Sannyo guessed. No call, and the turn proceeded.
Sannyo drew her tile—another terminal, a [🀘]. To get All-Simples, she needed to gather a set of melds that did not include any terminal or honor tiles. Drawing them wasn't ideal; she'd need to remove those from her hand to start with.
And so, she discarded:
[🀙]
No call. Sannyo studied Luka's expression. She remained stoic, staring at the discarded tiles.
The tengu's turn. Sannyo repeated the same play: a petition for the same tile, spoken in smoke.
[🀕]
… Closer, but not quite. This was an unlucky hand. They seemed to be picking the closest number to what she wanted.
Luka's turn came, and she wordlessly pulled from the wall. Sannyo watched her eyes study the tile she had drawn, then her hand, then again the discards…
Then, Luka locked eyes with Sannyo. It was an odd stare, almost piercing in its intent. With a careful motion, she discarded:
[🀔]
"Pon." Without hesitation, Sannyo called.
[🀔🀔🀔 / [2][2][2][9]🀘🀚🀚🀛🀛🀝🀞]
Luka didn't flinch in the slightest. In fact, she almost looked satisfied.
(... Hm.) She didn't like that. A lucky guess? But, why would she discard the tile she wanted?
For youkai, who prided themselves on instilling fear in humans, Luka's attitude almost felt a little insulting. Like she had been playing with Sannyo all along. That idea was even more insulting.
She'd silence that thought soon enough. Discard:
[🀘]
Luka raised an eyebrow, but didn't make a call. Tengu's turn. Sannyo made her command:
(Let's try for a [🀚]or a [🀛] this time, shall we?) If it didn't work out, she'd try to make a chi call on the kappa's turn.
The tengu discarded:
[🀜]
Again…? What an odd bout of bad luck…
Luka's turn. Drawing her tile, Luka eyed it rather decisively, before adding it to her hand. Again, she studied the tengu's discard and her penetrating stare reached Sannyo.
Then…
[🀛]
(... Again?)
Once was an odd coincidence, even if Luka's expression gave her pause. But twice?
Sannyo hesitated. "—Pon." But only for a moment. Yet again, Luka did not flinch at the call. This was definitely suspicious. "Curious. Are you trying to lose?"
"Just making some observations." Luka replied without pause. "Don't mind me, keep going. You're going to discard that now, right?"
As if she hadn't just said something incredibly suspicious, Luka began to hum innocently. A pleasant tune that contrasted with what almost sounded like a threat.
(I'm being toyed with.) Sannyo momentarily ignored the words and looked back at her hand.
[🀔🀔🀔 🀛🀛🀛 / [2][2][2][9]🀚🀚🀝🀞]
As before, her plan would be to discard any terminal/honor tiles she'd drawn. She had no use for them if she wanted to make an All-Simples hand. Getting the tiles wouldn't be a problem with her ability. Her finger hovered over the [9] in her hand as she considered that.
And yet, Luka's words lingered in the back of her mind. They made her hesitate, in a way that she did not like.
"It's a little late for hollow bluffs, don't you think?" Curious to see how her bravado would hold up to scrutiny, Sannyo challenged Luka, pressing her finger atop the terminal in her hand. "What kind of a fool do you take me for?"
"What kind of fool do you take yourself for?" Luka smiled.
(... What kind of youkai-like response is that?!)
Finger on the trigger, ready to give the order; yet Sannyo still was reluctant. Luka was too confident. It hadn't done her any good before, to be sure, but to maintain that level of self-assuredness?
She thought back to the beginning of this round. Luka had always been reacting to her smoke with a bit of disgust, like that of an unrefined child yet unaccustomed to the finer things in life. Yet just a minute ago, she had not only inhaled it but freely blew it out just the same as Sannyo herself had been doing.
That compounded with another thing Sannyo had not quite figured out. A mystery that plagued her, and had made it difficult to ascertain Luka East's true nature:
Her ability.
The girl claimed to have no ability, like that of a normal human. Yet, unremarkable as she was, she thoroughly demonstrated her immunity to Sannyo's mind control. Clearly she wasn't being completely truthful.
She had to have an ability. By the nature of what she'd demonstrated, it had to grant her some sort of resistance (if not an immunity) to Sannyo's ability. What was her secret? What was she hiding?
It remained concealed, just like her hand. That was another problem. A concealed hand made it difficult for Sannyo to determine what she was holding, and it often increased the hand's overall value as well.
She locked eyes with Luka. Perhaps, just as a test (and to calm herself)… Sannyo took a deep breath, smoke filling her lungs. Then, softly, she exhales, the cloud drifting towards Luka once again. The girl raised an eyebrow, and, just like before—
She took it in, and released it, matching Sannyo's gaze.
A smirk, knowing and mocking.
(... Damn her.)
She hated this uncertainty, this hesitation. But she also didn't want to take the risk of losing. It was unlikely that Luka's ability was some sort of direct mirror of Sannyo's. But it didn't have to be. If by any chance she was even capable of, with absolute certainty, hearing the commands whispered on wisps, it was dangerous for Sannyo to play to that. Even worse, if she could hijack or even disrupt her commands somehow (the last few discards had been suspiciously unlucky, considering)…
With great hesitation, Sannyo's finger landed on a tile, and discarded it:
[🀝]
She would wait and watch. Luka's gaze lingered on the tile. But no call came. In perhaps the tiniest, most subtle of movements, Sannyo saw a small twinge of tension release from Luka's brow.
Perhaps she was hoping Sannyo wasn't looking closely enough. She was.
Tengu's turn. Sannyo decided to place a new suggestion: 'Discard a terminal tile.'
It was a dare. If Luka had really meant what she said, she was waiting for someone to discard a terminal tile. And judging by her phrasing, she wanted it to be done on Sannyo. Meaning it was likely a hand-completing call, based on her earlier 'confidence'.
So. Sannyo would tempt her. She would dangle the girl's prize right in front of her, to see if she would bite. If she did, then the risk was mitigated by the tengu being the one to take the hit. And if she didn't?
Then she was bluffing.
Sannyo made sure not to break eye contact with Luka, even as the tengu's discard hit the table:
[🀘]
Luka's eyes snapped to the tile, perhaps a bit desperately, even. But she did not call it. With a noiseless sigh, she drew her next tile, then stared at it for a moment, along with the rest of her hand.
It was a miniscule tell, small enough that even the most experienced human gamblers might not notice it. But Sannyo saw it. A brief recoil. Slightly narrowed eyes. Gritted teeth behind closed lips, only revealed through a tense jawline. A bad draw, an incomplete hand. Why would she lament a bad draw if she was in such an assured state.
Calm breath and cleared throat; Luka tried to hide that short, almost invisible moment of weakness behind rebuilt stoicism. But Sannyo knew what she saw. Luka's discard came—
[🀒]
(Yes. Of course.)
A laugh. Sannyo laughed, out of genuine amusement, the most sincere expression she could make at this point.
Luka quailed slightly. "What? Is something funny?"
"You. You're a talented actor, aren't you?" Sannyo giggled. "Yes, acting so tough and serious, when you're actually terrified. I'll admit, you're very gifted at masking your fear. I almost bought into it."
She could see Luka squirming, as if in shock that she'd been seen through. She tried to gather herself, but there was little point. "I-I'm not sure what you mean…"
Sannyo hummed mirthfully. "There's no need. I'll spare you the embarrassment."
Two realities branched out from the placement of one tile. In one, Luka was simply some half-baked fool who thought acting tough at the last second would save her. In the other, Luka was perhaps the most terrifyingly skilled actor Sannyo had ever met, and she had been played for a fool the whole time.
Which was more likely? A sudden overturning of the entire game, or that this anxious girl was simply playing in-over-her-head?
Sannyo recalled a story:
Quite some time ago, there was once a human military strategist by the name of Zhuge Liang. Both feared and respected, the man was well-known for his guile and wit. One infamous trick of his was a stratagem he'd employed when cornered in one fateful battle. Unable to muster the forces to defend against an enemy attack on a city, Zhuge Liang instead opened the gates and ordered what few soldiers he had to disguise themselves as civilians and hide away.
Then, once his preparations were complete, he sat atop of the gates, and calmly played his guqin as the enemy approached, as if there was no threat of danger at all.
Simply because of how calm he was, mixed with his reputation as a careful, cautious strategist, the enemy general suspected some sort of ambush hidden in the city. He ordered a withdrawal, not realizing his foe's true ruse: an empty fortress. He had fled from a completely hollow fortress.
To put it very simply; it was an old stratagem, tried and true, but one that worked only if the opponent's reputation preceded them.
A bluff made by a genius was more credible than a bluff made by an obvious fool. Though, Sannyo would offer her this praise: Luka's humming was admittedly harmonious; a nice standin for a guqin. She really was not half-bad at acting.
It was a shame that her facade had crumbled right at the end. She could only amusedly imagine a reality where Zhuge Liang's nerves simply got the better of him and he skipped a note.
"Well played." Sannyo nodded appreciatively, a wide grin on her face. "Out of respect for your last gambit, I'll go ahead and end this game."
Seeing Luka's calm exterior crack wide open, Sannyo smirked as the kappa made her next discard:
[🀚]
"Pon." Sannyo sneered.
[🀔🀔🀔 🀚🀚🀚 🀛🀛🀛 / [2][2][2][9]🀞]
With that, she only needed a single pair from the remaining tiles. It wouldn't take long. Would it be in the tengu's hand? Or the kappa's? Either way, victory had been decided. Sannyo watched in satisfaction as Luka's eyes widened in shock.
"A good game to you, Luka East."
With that nicety, she discarded the one rogue element in her hand:
[9]
At that moment, in her haste, Sannyo failed to realize two things.
The first: Zhuge Liang's plan had another component to it. It was true that his opponent had fled upon seeing the empty fortress. But Zhuge Liang's plan operated on an understanding that his foe was to return later, in greater numbers. His success wasn't merely that his opponent had fled. It was that by fleeing, he had given Zhuge Liang time to gather his men. Or perhaps to more accurately reflect this analogy: to finish forming her hand.
And the second: that Luka might have been aware of these things, of this story. Modern humans were strange creatures—a great many often ignored the vast wealth of knowledge afforded to them, often for a wide assortment of reasons. But a few, whether out of boredom or genuine fascination, would peer into that vault of wisdom. Old ideas that had been revisited time and time again, adapting, growing, evolving with each new generation that had touched it. To the modern human willing to pour their effort into learning from it, that collective vault of wisdom was a terrifying thing. Even a simple barmaid, left with far too much free time, could share in it.
In this case, a thought experiment, brought about while reading a novel one summer afternoon: what if Zhuge Liang was some underestimated fool in his era? Even the weakest general, if he seemed competently guarded, would be greeted in kind by any sensible opponent. But if they saw him playing music nervously at the gates of his fortress? What a fool he would seem! Look at him, mimicking the generals of old! He's not even playing the song correctly! What a simple idiot! All any foe would need to do is march into the fortress and claim it.
And so they, and Sannyo, would do exactly that…
Never realizing until it was too late how intentionally alluring the seeming fool's song was. Not until the weakest general's maneuver had pierced their heart.
Click!
[[9][9] 🀇🀙🀡🀐🀘[E][S][W][N]🀆🀅🀄]
"Ron." Luka called. "Thirteen Orphans."
Thirteen Orphans. A special hand containing one of each terminal and honor tile, rounded out with a single pair.
"Wha—You—" Sannyo stammered, nearly choking on her own smoke.
"By the way, thanks for the compliment." Luka smirked, flashing a playful wink. "Glad to see you enjoyed my performance."
The scoring for that hand: 64000 pts.
Rankings (FINAL):
1st - [North] Luka: 94000 pts
2nd - [West] Tengu: 28500 pts
3rd - [East] Kappa: 18400 pts
4th - [South] Sannyo: -20900 pts
~Winner: Luka East~
Luka had a lot to unload after that game. She'd take her time with it, and get to the important stuff first.
With the game over, Luka and Sannyo had cleared out the rear room. Both the kappa and tengu had woken from their tobacco-induced zombie states, seeming to be thoroughly convinced they'd been part of some thrilling, satisfying game. Neither seemed to be bothered by the fact that they didn't really do anything important and they departed with little issue. It still bugged her a little, thinking about it, but Luka ignored the feeling for now.
With cleanup over, Luka and Sannyo were left seated at the newly emptied table. Her intent was to jump straight to why she'd played the game in the first place, but…
"That entire game was a BLUFF?!" Luke nearly shouted, slamming both hands on the table.
Sannyo frowned, raising her arms until the table finished shaking. "Would you please settle down?" A sigh. "Remember, there are other youkai in this building besides me."
Luka grumbled. She honestly didn't know if youkai could die by strangulation, but she was tempted to try. "Yeah, cool, can I get an explanation on why you threatened my life and made me gamble it on a game of mahjong?" Luka leaned further and further into the table with each word, almost towering over the lax Sannyo. She was so mad, it seemed like she'd forgotten how scared she was earlier.
Looking a bit sheepish now, Sannyo fiddled with her pipe in her hands. "Let me clarify something. Killing humans is bad for business. Especially ones that seem to be living in or near the village. Without getting into too many specifics that an outsider might not understand, if a human ended up dying in my den, it would invite all sorts of trouble."
"I'm about to invite brand new kinds of trouble in a—" Luka caught herself, and leaned away from the table, taking a deep breath. "Okay. So you never planned to kill me?"
"No, never."
"... So why go to the trouble of scaring me half to death?!"
Sannyo smiled. "Well, for one, it was fun." Luka contemplated violence. "But if you're asking for a practical reason, well…" Sannyo gestured to Luka's bag.
Luka glanced back at it. "... What? You wanted my stuff?"
"When you opened it earlier, I saw the coin you were carrying. Just a glimpse, but enough to see it was a sizable amount. Originally, I was thinking of just having you spend your money normally, but when you ignored my ability, well…" She dragged out the last word.
"Don't. Don't, please, I am sick of people dodging around the point." A familiar visual of a gap hag formed in Luka's mind. "Just say it."
Sannyo averted her eyes slightly. "... I was simply going to beat you, and then 'allow you to leave here alive' if you just handed over all your money."
So politely said. But there was really only one translation for that confession. "You were going to rob me."
"... Yes."
A painful few seconds of silence played out, with Luka staring directly into Sannyo's face, with Sannyo trying to avoid direct eye-contact. Again, one might be forgiven for forgetting their dynamic just a few minutes prior.
"You know what, I don't even care." Luka sighed, flopping her butt back into a chair. "Let's just get back to why we did this stupid thing in the first place."
"Yes, let us." Sannyo seemed more relieved than Luka at that. "You wished to know more about Suika, right?"
"That's right." Luka leaned back against her chair. "So, where is she? I'll take any and all info you can give me."
With a sigh, Sannyo leased a gray, stormy cloud of smoke. It seemed to reflect her mood, as her expression similarly grew tense. "The top of the mountain."
"The top? As in the peak?"
"Yes." Sannyo nodded.
That wasn't encouraging. Luka's hope was to find her quickly and be done with it. She didn't sign up for a full session of mountain-climbing. "Are you sure? What's she all the way up there for?"
"Heaven."
Luka blinked, unsure if she'd just had a brief stroke. "Pardon?"
"Heaven. She's in Heaven."
Luka stared at Sannyo for a few tense moments. "I swear, if you're telling me I did all of this for a joke about a dead oni…"
"It's not a joke, you dense fool." Sannyo's tone turned deathly serious. "She's still alive, she's just gone up to that divine realm using the peak of this mountain as a bridge point."
It was really difficult to parse the myriad of questions spinning around in Luka's mind. Like mental beer goggles. Eventually, she spat out the only thing she could think to ask. "Why the hell is she up there? How did she even…?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Sannyo scoffed. "The little pissant's been wise enough to steer clear of me after our last encounter. Whether she actually made it into that stuffy place or not isn't something I've bothered to look into. Spoils my tobacco just thinking about that little cretin."
Great. So, not only was Suika even further up the mountain than Luka could've imagined, but there was another barrier blocking her from potentially finding her.
"Well, it's info. Thanks." Luka nodded half-heartedly. She was tempted to walk off after that, but now something else was bugging Luka. Looking at Sannyo, she'd been in a bad mood whenever Suika was brought up. That wasn't a kind of anger that boiled up just because someone owed debt. "... I'm probably poking a bear here, but what did Suika do to you, exactly? It feels like you hate her personally, not just in a business sense."
Sannyo's agitation flared up, but she seemed to hold it in. "Do you really wanna know?"
"I'm dying of curiosity here." Luka shrugged.
Sannyo let out another wispy sigh. "Do you recall when I mentioned this was a 'temporary location?'"
"Yeah, I took note of that."
"I had others, not so long ago. All of them higher up on the mountain." Sannyo closed her eyes, as if reflecting on something. "That was, until the strange weather kicked up a few months ago."
"Right, I remember that. Most of the weather wasn't that extreme down here." Luka said. "Minus an earthquake here or there, or so I've heard…"
"Hmph." Sannyo frowned. "I'm happy for you. Unfortunately, for me, that mess practically tore my business to shreds."
Luka's eyes widened. "Was it really that bad?"
"I didn't even have to be." Sannyo held out her dragon pipe, as if to show the shape off to Luka. "My gambling den marks its position using that dragon you saw at the entrance. Normally, I make use of the abandoned buildings on the upper cliffs of this mountain. If one of them gets damaged somehow, we move to another location while I commission repairs. Not only do we serve youkai, but they're already pretty beat-up, so it's not an uncommon thing for me to have to do. Especially if I have any trouble calming the daily crowd."
"Makes sense, but I'm not seeing where Suika comes into this."
Sannyo smiled grimly. "Just wait." Malice. It didn't feel directed towards Luka, but she still promptly shut up. "With the weather rolling through, damage became more and more frequent. I couldn't keep up with the costs of repairs. So, I decided to settle on maintaining a single, fortified location until the incident passed through. Just long enough to get through the incident."
Luka got a really bad feeling. "And then…?"
"AND THEN!" She merely raised her voice, but the sound felt like a roaring dragon. "That little drunk stumbled in! Riled up my customers into a frenzy! Before I can get things under control, the entire building suddenly comes down!"
She wasn't screaming, still maintaining her dignity, but Luka could feel her venting. She'd been sitting with this for a while. Luka asking her had probably been the first chance she'd gotten to let this sort of steam off.
Luka unconsciously retreated a little bit from Sannyo. "I-I see. So, this location at the foot of the mountain, it's really just a salvage job."
Sannyo nodded while groaning, clearly still feeling her previous frustrations. "That's right. Now that the incident's over with, I'm stuck here until I can put together enough money to get my business back to normal."
That wasn't an unsympathetic cause. And it explained her earlier desperation. While business might have been booming, this building wasn't some large casino. It was a tiny shack. It was probably going to take Sannyo quite some time to get things back to normal. Being booted from your normal way of life, stuck in new territory for reasons you weren't responsible for… Luka was familiar with that.
(... I'm such a sucker.)
"Hey," Without so much as an ounce of hesitation, Luka reached into her bag, grabbing something and tossing it over to Sannyo.
"—?" Caught off-guard but not by much, Sannyo snatched the object out of the air. Her eyes immediately widened. Clankle-clink. A small pouch of money, the very same one Luka had brought with her. "What's this about? Our agreement was that I'd only take this if you lost."
"Take it anyway." Luka waved a hand dismissively. "You need the money, right? You already got screwed once. I don't like leaving people when they're in a pinch."
Sannyo balked at her words. "Aren't you a generous one?"
"I'm really not." Luka shrugged. "It's normal to help someone if they need it."
That wasn't some expression of humility. Her choice wasn't some moral, holier-than-thou high ground move. To Luka, it was a response on the same level as scratching an itch: something to be done to remove an annoying sensation. Much like the smoke still agitating her sense of smell.
"Anyways, I'll be off. Thanks for the help." With that, Luka made for the door.
"Just a moment."
"?" Luka begrudgingly turned back. "What's up?"
Sannyo seemed to hesitate, as if considering. "Do you intend to continue up the mountain?"
"It's not like I've got much of a choice, do I?"
"In that case," Sannyo said. "I would advise you to be mindful not to stray into tengu territory."
'Tengu territory'. Right, she'd seen a section in Hiro's map about that. His notes had a warning about part of the mountain patrolled by 'wolves and birds alike', but he didn't elaborate much further beyond providing patrol routes.
It didn't hurt to ask. "Why's that? Is it more dangerous than the rest of the mountain?"
"I suppose to a human it might be so. But I'm not warning you as a human so much as I am warning you as an outsider." Sannyo's expression turned dour. "The tengu are a prideful bunch, to put it lightly. I may have been content to let you off with a bit of a scare, but any tengu who spots you stepping foot in their part of the mountain won't take it so lightly."
"So they'll actually try to kill me?" Luka frowned.
"I can't say for certain if they'd do it intentionally, but they won't shed any tears if you happened to die in the commotion. And they certainly won't hesitate to swarm you all at once, be it a murder of crows or a pack of wolves." She smirked darkly, as if envisioning the whole bloody scene. "Be mindful of where their eyes and ears are, is my advice."
"Eyes and ears, huh?" Not a bad suggestion. Sneaking by was more Luka's style, anyways. "Thanks for the heads-up." She nodded appreciatively.
"Mm."
With that, Luka departed from the Komakusa Gambling Den (Temporary) with nary a single glance over her shoulder.
A few minutes of silence passed as Sannyo sat, unmoving in her chair. A thought gripped her, something that she'd considered bringing up before her unexpected guest departed. But in the end, she decided against it.
"That girl… In the end, she still never used her ability, did she?" Sannyo mused to herself, unsure of the truth and never knowing that Luka currently had no way to provide her with a satisfying answer to that question. "A bluff to the very end, or…?"
Back on the mountain trail, Luka took a deep breath. In, out, in, out. Calm, cool, easy.
Until it became a harsh wheeze, and Luka lurched forward and unleashed a sound like a deflating balloon. She coughed for a good minute, the irritation from Sannyo's smoke finally catching up with her. It'd taken all of her willpower to hold it in during their conversation, and now that it was over, she needed to let it all out.
"That… was the dumbest thing I've ever done." Inhaling the smoke was perhaps the most desperate bluff she'd ever made. With neither Sannyo nor herself knowing what her actual ability was, it made it really tricky to play off that act. She was shocked she'd managed it for so long. Now, she was paying for it. "Second-hand smoking sucks. Ugh…"
She hoped she hadn't damaged something by doing that… That aside, once her breathing steadied, Luka got back to her feet and placed her hand on her chest, next to her heart.
(... Heartbeat's normal. I'm still a lot calmer than before. What's going on with me?) She still didn't understand this newfound calmness she was feeling. Again, her fear had yet to vanish, but it felt like it was being muted still. Like some part of her had started filtering it out. Did she have some sort of mental break during the game with Sannyo? (Gensokyo doesn't have therapists, does it?)
Luka shook her head, dismissing the thought. Her newfound clarity wasn't really something she could waste a ton of time thinking about. Though, it did give her an odd sense of… comfort.
(I mean, I bluffed like crazy there. I didn't know I could do that. Am I just made of sterner stuff than I realized?)
Her fear masked, this newfound confidence found its way to the forefront of her emotional state. Luka was tougher than she'd ever imagined. Maybe… Maybe she was just doubting herself this whole time.
(Well, whatever the case is, I've still got a long way to go.) Looking up, she still had a long way to go. The mountain path spiraled up, rising higher and higher into the skies above. (Break time over. Let's go.)
Boldly carrying this new experience with her, Luka continued her stride up the mountain.
Author's Note:
*flops forward*
Never. Again.
Learning mahjong for this was fun. Writing it out? Planning all of this? Holy shit, was it a pain. I had fun at some points, but for a big chunk of it, these last few chapters were an absolute slog to work through.
What started as a fun little idea to demonstrate certain things, provide a unique sort of fight, and show off more of Luka's traits (while still celebrating those of her opponent) steadily spiraled into a massive, complicated battle that forced me to regroup at the outlining phase several times over. It was an absolute nightmare.
For those more familiar with the game, you might notice I neglected to mention a lot of little rules. Furiten in particular had to be silently worked around, which took a lot of work. A lot of that was for streamlining. Riichi mahjong is an incredibly dense game—too dense for me to handle without pushing these chapters out for another year entirely. For what we're left with, I had to simplify the game and its presentation by a lot, creating a fight within these confines that still accurately reflected both the game and the two people playing it.
I don't know if I can say I succeeded, but I have seen some really nice comments/reviews across both sites this fanwork is uploaded on, and boy I just want to say thank you to them all. Seriously, you all kept me going on what has unexpectedly become one of the hardest chapters to write. A reminder to the FFN folks that this fic is also uploaded on AO3! So in the event of any catastrophic failures of this website, you can find it there.
Anyways, if you enjoyed this, please let me know. It'd make me feel a lot better about burning this much energy into writing something this exhausting. I don't know if I can do something like this particular fight again, but I've definitely learned a lot from writing this.
See you all next time, when Luka ascends to the next part of her journey up the mountain!